


Wolf Song

by Ursula



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, Drama, Fiction, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-01-29
Updated: 2005-01-29
Packaged: 2018-11-20 09:19:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11332851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ursula/pseuds/Ursula
Summary: Walter Skinner goes to the Yukon to heal his loss and wounds. His life is saved by a supernatural wolf.





	Wolf Song

**Author's Note:**

> Note from alice ttlg, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Basement](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Basement), which moved to the AO3 to ensure the stories are always available and so that authors may have complete control of their own works. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in June 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [The Basement's collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thebasement/profile).

Wolf Song

### Wolf Song

#### by Ursula

  


Title: Wolf Song 

Author/Pseudonym: Ursula 

Fandom: X-Files 

Pairing: Skinner/Krycek 

Rating: NC-17 

Status: Finished Not beta read 

Date Posted: 01-28-05 

Archive: FHSA 

E-mail address for feedback: Fan4Richie or 

Classification: Birthday Story for Laura aka Wolfens 

Series/Sequel: Is this story part of a series: No 

Web Site: http://www.fhsarchive.com/stories/Ursula.html 

Disclaimers: No profit, fan fiction for fun 

Notes: 

Quickly written because I'd forget my head if it wasn't sewed on. 

Warnings: Fantasy 

Time Frame: AU 

How I came here, it was hard to say. Suffice to say that one day I woke and I had to get away. I had to leave my suits behind. I had to leave the lies behind, the pain, the past, the compromises that gave away more of my soul with each passing day. 

Canada is a big place. The Yukon is big enough for there to remain places a human foot has seldom stepped. That was what I needed. I needed to know that there was no other human for a hundred miles in every direction. 

And I came here. 

Here, to work as a "refuge officer'. No, I don't work for Canadian immigration. I enforce hunting and fishing regulations. Not that I work much. Not in the dead of winter anyway. 

Right now, I was covering two territories. My nearest co-worker had pneumonia and there was no one to cover for him. I had assured the home office that I was fine and that they needn't rush anyone to cover his post. I could inspect both areas. 

Today, though, I was in my familiar neighborhood although some miles into the forest. I had seen some wolf tracks and was supposed to record the size of the pack if I could find them. 

I used a snow mobile to get around when I had to go off the road. I was always careful to maintain my equipment in good order and had inspected the snow mobile just two days ago. 

So I don't know how the timing chain broke. I swear it looked fine when I checked it. 

There's no fucking way to repair a timing chain in the middle of the wilderness. 

OooOooO 

Conventional wisdom is that you stay put when lost in the wilderness and wait for help. 

Conventional wisdom doesn't cover cases where your radio doesn't work and you just opted out of anyone checking on you for a month. 

I didn't have any choice. I had to hike back to the road. I did have survival gear, thermal underwear, lined boots, emergency food, flares, matches, and even water purification tablets. All well and good, but never intended to cover more than a single day and night in the wild. 

Never having been taught how to give up without a fight, I took out my snowshoes and started walking. 

At first, it's beautiful. Acres of pristine white snow, sparkled in the bright winter day. Icicles formed from the heavy laden tree branches, gleaming like jewels. So lovely, so deadly, it reminded me of someone I came here to forget. 

One foot, another foot, I trudged through the deep snow. My eyes burned; I had stumbled and crushed my sunglasses. I was going snow blind when I remembered the old trick of shading your eyes with a bandana. Each step felt as if someone was piling on lead weights between one breath and the next. My lungs burned with the constant abrasion of the powder mist that had started to fall. 

They wouldn't find me until spring. 

Just then, I heard the music; it was an eerie, undulating sound that added a fresh chill to my bones. Wolf Song. You hear about it. Some say it is beautiful, but when you hear it like this, alone, suffering, stumbling weakly like prey, you know that ancient fear, imprinted so deep into our genes that we could be a hundred years in space and still know it. 

My fear making me stupid; I started to run, stumbled, scrabbled up, and ran again. 

As I rose again, wet, exhausted, starting to lose hope, I took my rifle and turned to face them. Something leapt through the air and knocked the rifle from my hands. I lunged for it, but my arm was caught in a huge set of jaws. They drew me down and then I was pinned by a heavy, furry weight. No longer frightened, I stared into sea green eyes. I didn't know that wolves had green eyes. 

To my surprise, the wolf didn't tear my throat out. It took my rifle in its mouth and leapt into the woods, returning without it. Meanwhile, the rest of the pack padded into a circle around me. I suspected I was about to become a hunting lesson for the half grown cubs that quivered with excitement as they watched me. 

One of them crept toward me, down low, ears pressed against his head. His tail swished gently in the snow, like an excited pup. Great, I was going to be a chew toy for a wolf. 

I grabbed a fallen branch and swung it threateningly. It deterred my stalker for a moment, but I knew that wouldn't last long. I saw a wolf creeping up on my other side. 

Walter Skinner was about to end in a way even Mulder would not have believed. If I was lucky, Mulder would return to Washington, hear about my decision and come looking for me. The obsessive bastard would keep looking until he found my bones. At least, my family would have peace that way. 

OooOooO 

A growl pierced the air and suddenly the black wolf with green eyes was standing beside me. When one of the teenage wolves tried to dart past him to get to me, the bigger wolf lunged at him, snapping his jaws near the pup's side and uttering a huge sharp sound. The pup rolled over, tail folded over his genitals and whimpered. Reminded me of junior agents after I was done with them. 

I didn't have any hope that I would get away or that the wolf was intervening out of some dolphin like altruism. Half remembered nature shows told me that the alpha wolf ate first. Despite my pessimism, I decided to turn and keep walking. Perhaps if I ignored the pack, they would leave me alone. 

The big wolf padded beside me, his huge feet barely denting the snow. I noticed that there were scars on his left leg and toes missing from the same limb. He must have escaped from a trap at some point. Another reason for him to hate humans. Still he escorted me without further aggression once he had taken my rifle. I felt like I was in a story that Mulder would have loved to investigate. 

I started to slip again, but a huge back caught me before I could hit the snow. I clung to thick wet fur and the wolf looked up at me, green oblique eyes glittering with amusement. I wondered if it was a fluke, but the wolf pressed his body more firmly beneath my arm and nudged me with his side as if to say, 'Come on'. I'll support you.' 

It was all a hallucination, probably the result of toxins created by my dying body. At least, that's the explanation everyone but Mulder believed about the avatar that haunted me in Vietnam and after. However, if my dying brain wanted to believe a gigantic wolf was helping walk out of the woods, who was I to argue? 

OooOooO 

I have to say my dying brain is extraordinarily creative. It conjured my cabin, my wet cold clothing off, and a fire in the wood stove. It also supplied warm naked human flesh up against mine. Happily, I explored the beautiful body and sought the lips I knew would yield to me. How wonderful, even when dying, that the burden was lifted from my soul and that which I loved was restored to me. 

Alex. 

OooOooO 

Aching bones, skin that felt raw and a big toe with a blackening nail were not part of any hallucination I felt I should be having. The wolf was under the blankets with me. I tentatively petted his head. He panted, gave my hand a quick rasping lick, then leapt to the floor. He whined at the door, making me get up to let him out. 

Hell if I know how I got here. I suppose the wolf must have helped me, but how he managed to get the door open, the wood stove going, and my clothes off was beyond me. 

There was even a pot of oatmeal on the stove, embellished with raisins and brown sugar just the way I liked. 

All right, I was Alice. I was willing to believe six impossible things before breakfast. 

I made myself a bowl of oatmeal, ate it, banked the fire, and took the rest of the day off. Late night, when I was awake between naps, something clawed the door. I opened it and my green eyed wolf walked in. He shook his fur, yawned, and lay down by the woodstove. 

"You're back?" I asked. "You're an odd sort of wolf, you know. Not a very good wolf at all, and I don't have a thing to feed you. Not a feeble old grandmother in the place nor a tender little red riding hood." 

I swear to God that the wolf shot me a look of contempt before settling down to a good grooming session. 

When I went to bed, the wolf joined me. What could I say? He had saved my life. 

OooOooO 

I dreamed again. Dreamed that I turned and instead of rough fur I encountered smooth flesh. Instead of a fierce wolf, I found a fierce, never forgotten, always mourned lover. We made love in the darkness, our hands tracing each other, my touch fleeting when I encountered a trace of scars. The man I remembered had come to me once, made love with me once after he lost that arm. Now, his flesh was healed, but imperfectly. I was impressed with how detailed my imagination was becoming. 

Alex moaned deeply as I worshipped his cock, my mouth and throat taking him deep, my hands holding down his bucking hips. "Yes, yes, yes," he screamed, shooting down my throat. It tasted like him. I knew him so well, knew the smell of him, the shape of him in my mouth, the flavor of his come, the way his entire body leapt when he came and the way he always sighed as he went boneless afterwards. 

Making love to him, taking him was a sacrament. I knew I had to be dreaming, but don't wake me. Never wake me. 

In the morning, I could smell my sex in the room. I swear I could catch some hint of Alex. 

I hope to hell I hadn't made love to a wolf. It wasn't in the cabin. It had let itself out. 

Where's a Mulder when you need him? Something was strange, very strange. 

OooOooO 

The wolf was back early. I saw the rest of his pack disappear into the trees when he entered the clearing. I grabbed an armful of wood and went into the cabin. The wolf shut the door behind him. I looked at him and said, "You seem able to come and go as you please. Why did you make me let you out the first night? Trying to break your supernatural status to me easily?" 

The wolf just stood his ground, mouth agape, tail wagging, and eyes sparkling. I shrugged and said, "I thawed out moose stew. Do you eat cooked food?" 

The wolf didn't say, but when I filled a bowl, he easily emptied it. 

When the wolf tried to climb in my bed, I pushed him away. I said, "No, I'm a little uncomfortable with the dreams I've been having. You better pull up the rug instead." 

The wolf growled at me and turned tail. I felt a blast of cold air. Damn wolf left the door open. I yelled, "I don't need you, Wolf. Just stay the hell away." 

That night I did not dream of my beautiful love and woke feeling empty inside. 

OooOooO 

For two days and two nights, I was alone. I finally managed to get the radio to work, but didn't mention my misadventure. I said that my supplies were holding out and I had no trouble. I talk to the home office, enjoying the Canadian English accent of Pat Lowry, my Captain. I know she keeps me on the line to make sure I wasn't going slightly mad as some men do when alone in the wilderness. Even to myself, I sound sane and sober, a retired FBI Assistant Director living out a second life as a wilderness agent. 

"Got plenty to read?" Pat asked. 

"Yes," I said, "Thought I would read "Call of the Wild". 

"Very good," Pat replied. "Just don't try to requisition a dog team again when you finish." 

I laughed, but thinking about what nearly happened, I think the dog team would have been a more reliable than a snow mobile. 

After saying a warm goodbye to Pat, I decided to finish repairing the snow mobile. I had a timing chain in my supplies. It took all day to repair it. When I finished, I looked up and the wolf was observing me. 

I dusted my hands and said, "I'm sorry, Wolf. You can sleep in my bed if you like. It's not your fault that I keep dreaming of him. You would have liked Alex. He was a lot like you. Green eyes, black hair, and a feral streak. And he was beautiful, so beautiful." 

The wolf cocked his head, but made no comment. I was glad. I wasn't ready for talking animals yet. 

More moose stew seemed to have soothed away Wolf's ire. He ate well and joined me on the couch. I put down my book after a time and spent long moments petting Wolf's head. I hadn't named him. He seemed to much a creature of himself to impose a name on him. I didn't think of him as a pet. He was a guest in my house. 

As far as his origin, I knew that people persisted in capturing wolf cubs and trying to make pets of them. Some seemed to accept that fate, but more often they failed. I thought that Wolf was one of those pets, helping me in memory of some half forgotten yet still loved owner. He had saved my life and now I seemed to find such peace with him. 

Wolf slept with me that night, but I had no sexual dreams of Alex this time although I dreamed I held my lover in my arms and that he smiled at me. That was almost a better fantasy then the rush of sexual imagery that had teased and tormented me a few nights ago. 

OooOooO 

Wolf continued to be my companion. When Allen Densmore returned to his post, Wolf disappeared when he visited, but I was gruff and discouraging, making my co-worker's social calls short and infrequent. I preferred time spent with Wolf. He let me observe his pack as much as I chose to do. Something makes me think he's not been the leader long. The female alpha is older and doesn't act as if he is her mate. She sits alone at times, howling sadly at the sky. I think she lost her mate after the cubs were born and accepted the interloper because she needed help feeding them. 

None of the other wolves are as friendly as the black wolf, but in time, they come to accept me. I take notes on their behavior. They spent a lot of time hunting, but even in the dead of winter, they spend a fair amount of time playing and grooming each other. The cubs are funny as hell, always tossing some scrap of fur or an old bone around, reminding me of myself as a teen, all angles and energy, never able to be still. I feel honored by the way they accept me. This is a good life, a better life then I ever expected when I withdrew here to lick my wounds. 

The only thing disrupting my peace is that there were traces of poachers. There were snow mobile tracks that are neither mine nor Allen Densmore's. 

Even more disturbing, I found what remained of a bear, not much taken except the gall. The classes I had taken had covered any of the flora and fauna that were likely to be poached. Bears were particularly vulnerable because they were desirable sport for big game hunters, had uses in Asian medicine, and were also exploited by those who manufactured First Nation artifacts. 

I made sure I carried a back up rifle when I went out. Poaching is big money and involves big time criminals. I had no doubt if I caught them that they would shoot to kill. I didn't plan to die that way. Not after all I had been through in my life. 

OooOooO 

I heard guns firing and the sound of snow mobiles roaring. Racing in that direction, I found two snowmobiles with four men. They were shooting at the wolves and one of the cubs, the timid female that I called Lupa was limping. 

The black wolf wasn't with them and my heart jumped with fear when I realized that. 

"Game department," I yelled. "Throw down your rifles!" 

I expected that they would try to shoot me, but I didn't expect that they would aim their snow mobiles at me in a high speed game of chicken. I miscalculated and glanced off a boulder. I was thrown free of the wreck, glancing off another boulder and hurting my shoulder. I rolled, reaching for my rifle, but I had a feeling I wouldn't make it. 

The men walked toward me, laughing. "Idiot," the tallest of them said. "They pay you enough to get killed over it?" 

I caught sight of the black wolf. He was stalking the men. Four of them. Even if the wolf took one of them, it was too many. I had to get to my rifle the moment he struck. 

The wolf leapt silently, taking down the last man of the four, he was a seedy looking Asian man. The others turned at the attack, giving me the moment I needed to get to my rifle. I shot without consciously aiming, but apparently my instincts were good. The lead man fell. I fired again when I saw another man drawing on me. It took two shots to bring that one down. 

The third man was trying to beat Wolf off his companion, hitting him with the butt of his rifle. I started toward the scene, but the man, a heavily bearded man with a scarred forehead, fired blindly at Wolf. I saw the bullet strike Wolf's forehead and I yelled in agony, remembering another shot, a bullet I would have died to take back. 

I can't say whether I was firing in revenge or self-defense. I only knew my shot was deadly. 

Falling to my knees, I touched Wolf's chest, wishing it would rise and fall beneath my hand. I wept and rocked, gathering my friend within my arms. He was just a wolf, but he was my companion, my self-chosen ally. 

I prayed as if God would reach down and take this back. 

Some spirit must have been listening, because Wolf stirred. 

There was something wrong. Wolf was changing. Something white and naked rose from a robe of wolf fur. I saw beauty, strong limbs, thick, sturdy hips, the smoothly muscled chest. Alex. It was Alex emerging from the guise of a wolf. 

I could not believe it. I could not accept it, but I could not question it either. 

Looking around, Alex shivered and took a step toward me. He said, "Walter? Walter, what happened? I wasn't here. The last thing I remember... " 

Frowning, Alex looked at the bloody scene and asked, "Did Mulder get away?" 

"Don't worry about Mulder," I said. "He's safe." 

"Good," Alex said. He shivered again, shaking in the cold. He reached down for his robe of wolf fur, but it shimmered and faded. 

I followed Alex's gaze and saw the female wolf standing there. Her offspring were with her, even Lupa, the wounded cub. Alex made a groaning sound and walked to the wolves. They flowed around him, sniffing him then they cried to heaven, they raised their noses to the sky and mourned he who was lost to them. 

Taking my coat, I put it over him. "Don't worry," I said. "it's over. You're safe. I don't know how this happened, but now we're together." 

Alex embraced me, holding onto me with all of his strength and passion. I stroked his hair, kissed his lips, his face. I saw nothing of the wolf left in him yet I know he had been my friend, the wild creature. It was magic. It was glory. It was a blessing that I had never expected to have. 

"I have to get you out of here," I said. "Can you get to my cabin? Take the snowmobile over there. I can tell them I sent a friend for help with it. I'll meet you there." 

Alex kissed me again and nodded. 

OooOooO 

The fourth man was dead before I thought to check him. There was no way to disguise how he died, but I told Allen the truth to some extent, saying that one of the hunted wolves had turned on the man, distracting all of the poachers and saving my life. 

After the investigators were finished with me, Allen brought me back to the cabin where Alex waited, looking very human and very lovely. 

"Oh," Allen said, when Alex ran to embrace me. 

"That's why you've suddenly become so curt with me?" Allen said. "I don't have a problem with it, Walter. I wondered what you were hiding." 

Holding out his hand, Allen introduced himself and Alex quietly returned the favor. "I know you two probably want to be alone," Allen said. 

Allen probably thought that Alex had been around and helped me with the poachers. He said nothing of it though. It may not have been regulation to take a lover along while you worked, but rules were lax out here as long as you did your job. 

Offering my hand to Alex, I went inside with him. 

"You were with me," I said. "You became human. I knew it wasn't a dream." 

An enigmatic smile answered that. Alex kept his mysteries. 

OooOooO 

My lover's hand in mine, we crossed to the bed I had shared with Wolf. 

Tumbling down, we were enraptured at the first touch. Clothing fled beneath our hands. 

I could not stop kissing him. My lips soothed every inch of him, cherishing his beauty, celebrating the life that ran through his veins. 

Alex's legs drew me close. His hands incited me to make love to him, to claim him. 

I wanted him to take me, but he drew me in, taking me inside him. I felt as if I was trying to do more than to make love to him. I felt the need to be with him, to feel as if we joined in more than our flesh. 

My hands and my lips, my cock inside him drew whimpers, growls, curses of pleasure out of him. We came together. We came, screaming like eagles. 

I never let him go, not once that night. I was as happy as I had ever been in my life. 

My beautiful love had come back to me. This second chance was something I could not explain. It was mystery as Alex was mystery. I would leave it to Mulder to look beyond the truth of Alex's living flesh. I had the feeling Mulder would find us, but I didn't fear that now. Nothing so perfect could ever go wrong again. 

OooOooO 

Sometimes when the pack howls in the distance, I see Alex's eyes get that far away look. I know he's not with me at that moment. I know his spirit is running with the pack. I took him from them and that life. Perhaps it was supposed to happen. Perhaps Alex's Manitou drew me here to a fate that was meant to purify us both. 

Still, I hold my breath until the wolf song ends and Alex's eyes draw to me instead of into the wilderness. Our hands meet. Our flesh touches. Alex smiled and then he kisses me. 

"I'm here where I belong," Alex tells me. "I'm happy." 

I smile back. I kiss him and hold him. I promise silently that he will never regret the choice he made. I will never fail him. I will always love him without reserve, with all of my soul. 

His hand tightens on mine and I realize he knows. 

I'm happy too. 

The end   
  

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